DARKSTAR CAMPAIGN UPDATE: DUCHESS ANNABEL’S WAR IS OVER
Replay - Are Darkstar Pirates "OP"
So in the wake of Saturday’s game, I’ve been wondering if the Corporate Consortium / Pirate warships in Darkstar are in fact overpowered.
Short answer, no. They perform exactly as they should, at least in the case of the Corporate Consortium: extremely small, extremely high-tech, extremely fast, extremely vulnerable, but extremely accurate / advanced.
However, they may be underpriced in scenario points. I have absolutely no issue with putting advanced / powerful /less numerous units up against weaker / less advanced / more numerous units (such is asymmetrical warfare and wargaming), but the points have to take this properly into account to allow proper game balance.
So to test this, I re-ran Saturday’s game Japan v. Pirates solitaire to see if I could come up with a different result.
As before, these Japanese will "automatically lose" the first turn of initiative, and the pirates will be allowed to enter from any edge of the board, through any hex not covered by the moon. To counter the initial pirate advantage, the Japanese make much slower approach, a hairpin turn, then allow the moon’s gravity to tug their sterns back against the moon’s atmosphere. This seems to at least mitigate the risk of a pirate fleet appearing directly on their six. So the Japanese player has to make that first move PERFECTLY, backing up directly against the moon’s atmosphere. This would still allow the pirates to theoretically streak INTO THE SAME hex if he really wants to get behind you, but then there are only three ships allowed in a hex so with two Japanese ships in the hex, only one pirate ship can do this (instead of four) and even then, the range is pointblank which is NOT good for the pirate player. There are other options for the Pirates (two of which are shown above) - including a very high-speed approach from the opposite end of the table that allows a full frontal torpedo spread against the Japanese port quarter – while avoiding Japanese broadsides and keeping the range at 11 hexes – range bracket 5) but this approach isn’t as perfect as we saw Saturday.
The pirates choose option 2, coming on the table at velocity 16, decelerating to 9, and releasing full forward spread of Class V "Sparta XII" torpedoes. At this range and facings, only ONE GUN in either fleet can fire at each other, and both miss. Again, good initial move by the pirates. If they win this game, it will be with torpedoes, and 
The Japanese destroyer (Harata), largest ship on the table, predictably loses initiative. With a pair of jackknife turns, she continues to edge toward the pirates, closing the distance and keeping her stern brushing the moon's atmosphere. The pirate flagship Jasmine's Diamond has to move next, and the Urakaze pounces, finally bringing her forward weapons and torpedo tubes to bear. I realize now I slighty screwed up the Japanese movement for the Hatara, she should have opted to be ONE HEX CLOSER to the moon so pirate torpedoes couldn't strike directly for her stern.
The forward battery of the Urakaze and aft weapons of the Harata blow the front end off the Jasmine's Diamond, landing a hit on the bridge that knocks her out. Meanwhile, the Harata and Urakaze shoot down six of the incoming pirate torpedoes, but the remaining four all but automatically hit (+3 CIC bonuses and "Electronic Warfare" battle upgrades on two of the pirate warships). This, plus the few, small, put accurate guns of the pirate flotilla cripple the Harata as well. Still, that's 33 point loss for thepirates and 34 point loss for the Japanese. This game is already at least a little more balanced (and again, I really should have handled the Harata's Turn 2 movement differently).
The results on the Jasmine's Diamond and the Harata.
It's something of a miracle, but the Urakaze wins initiative against the Fast Company. The Japanese fighters fire their missiles, while six Class V Torpedoes sail in against the Urakaze. She shoots down four of them, but two hits,plus the small lasers of the Razor III and the Stiletto, are more than enough to leave her crippled. Meanwhile, the Fast Company, Razor III, and Stiletto shoot down all the Japanese torpedoes and fighter missiles, but the forward gunnery of the Akashi-class strike frigate is enough to knock down the Fast Company's engines. ![Even with both Japanese warships knocked down, there are still six fighters and three scouts on the table (plus one pirate scout). Technically, the game right now is a DRAW, with the Japanese left with 15 points [(6 x 2) + 3] = 15 points) on the table against the Pirates' 7 + 7 + 1 = 15 (you have to win by at least 5% of the starting total (63 points). But for testing purposes, the Japanese fighters will make strafing attacks against the Pirate gunboats. The Japanese lose two fighter in the first tun, but score two hits against the Razor III. The Razor III loses mass drivers, starboard quarter shielding,](https://images.beastsofwar.com/2019/01/89444440-DS_Web_Game_05a_07.jpg)
Even with both Japanese warships knocked down, there are still six fighters and three scouts on the table (plus one pirate scout). Technically, the game right now is a DRAW, with the Japanese left with 15 points [(6 x 2) + 3] = 15 points) on the table against the Pirates' 7 + 7 + 1 = 15 (you have to win by at least 5% of the starting total (63 points). But for testing purposes, the Japanese fighters will make strafing attacks against the Pirate gunboats. The Japanese lose two fighter in the first tun, but score two hits against the Razor III. The Razor III loses mass drivers, starboard quarter shielding, 
On turn five the fighters can ironically not keeping up with the accelerating gunboats. But in order to count as victory points, the gunboats have to remain in the battle space, which means they will have to turn around ... Meanwhile the Japanese scouts score a moral victory by shooting down the one Pirate scout. 
On Turn 6, almost all the Japanese fighters are shot down in another suicidal gunnery run on the gunboats (some survive however, because the Razor III has sensor damage and reduced mass driver fire). However, with no starboard quarter shielding, the Razor III really needs only one more hit to be potentially crippled. The fighters and scouts score it, and the Razor III is crippled by fighter strafing. The game is effectively called at this point, as there is no way the last Japanese fighter and three scouts can knock out that gunboat, and the gunboat will never catch the fighters if they don't want to engage (initiative and turn sequence). So the score is Japan 5, Pirates 7. The Pirates win by 2, BARELY enough to clear the required 5% of the starting total in order to claim a win. So is this game balanced? Technically, yes. But the Japanese player cannot make a single mistake and has to be at least moderately lucky (or at least not unlucky to pull off a win or at least a respectably draw.
Honestly, I would say this scenario design is still pretty flawed, as the odds for victory are still undeniably with the the pirate player.
Are corporate / pirate ships overpowered? Honestly, I don’t know. I’m starting to think the power / cost requirements for those +3 CICs is too low, so while they may not be “overpowered,” they may honestly be underpriced. Larger power plants (and thus higher scenario points per ship) may be required to allow these ships to carry such advanced equipment. This way they keep them and the corporate high-tech flavor, but opposing players get to bring in more against them to keep the game fair and fun for both sides.
Definitely something to address in rules v1.1
Not having dug too deeply yet into how equipment is priced, my gut feeling after reading these two reports is that you are right on the underpricing. “Luck modifiers” (such as those +3 CIC bonuses) should be weighted a bit heavier in the balancing act. The autohits on the fantail of the Harata (looks like at least two torpedoes hit the number 2 column?) were rather brutal, and if I recall there was a similar round of torpedo impacts in the previous game. The points hike wouldn’t have to be high, perhaps enough to allow for an extra fighter/scout to… Read more »
@sigmundr I think you are on to something there – the +2 CIC I had in a previous game vs. @oriskany allowed me to try to hang back and try to snipe, and on small nimble boats like that even going from 7 to 8 points will be an heavy increase.
I think it stand out in this game more than any other due to the smaller point cost of both fleets, they might have been drowned out by the fire power/damage absorption of a Heavy Cruiser.
Thanks,@sigmundr and @rasmus – Okay, I went into the Master Root Sheet to adjust the power requirements for high-powered CICs (especially +3s as well as Class V torpedoes) and found a MAJOR problem in the math. Power requirements for CICs are way off, not only for +2s and +3s, but pretty much all light cruisers and some other issues as well. This is a perfect opportunity to roll out v1.1 of the Darkstar Rules. There were some small issues with the rules, some typos in the writing, the missing ECM/Shielding values for the Scharnhorstclass, and a hew small problems. But… Read more »
Free updates!
Rewrites or FAQ sheet? Either way is great. Luckily I held off on printing the book of Darkstar as others things have been consuming my time but looks like it was destiny holding me back.
Again, thanks for the updates!
Thanks, @templar007 . Yes, everything for Darkstar will always be free. I make acceptable money at a “real” job, so gaming / hobby for me will always be for fun. Just the idea that interested people are getting enjoyment out of this means more than I can say. Very little is being tweaked in the actual rules. Really, typos and some very minor clarifications where small, corner case rules were not CLEAR, nothing’s actually being changed. In the ship designs, however, some of them will get updates (Cross class battlecruiser remains unchanged). No one’s played the Corporate Consortium in quite… Read more »